In Physical Bar
Charts, viewers are presented with tall see-through tubes containing
button badges, each with a specific message on. Visitors are prompted
to help themselves to badges. As they do so, the levels in the tubes
drop, presenting an inverse bar chart showing the popularity of the
badges.

Together, the Physical Bar Charts are an example of social data
gathering, collaborative sense-making, playful research, real-time
reporting, and experiential inquiry. They spark conversations and
prompt a community such as TED to reflect on its concerns and practices.

Alongside the
tubes are postcards asking visitors to predict the levels in the tubes
on a future date. Depending on the messages on the badges, and the
location in which the tubes are placed, the Physical Bar Charts make
public the views of anonymous participants. As people walk around
wearing the badges, a temporary community is formed.

Above: Close up of Physical Bar Charts at TEDGlobal 2011

Below:
‘How
strategic have you been this week?’

Photo
from
Imagining
Business, June 2008:

Physical
Bar
Charts

Participative
time-based
installation

A
development
from
Pindices, a collaboration with sociologist Andrew Barry.

Physical
Bar Charts was first shown in the touring exhibition Day to Day Data at Angel Row
Gallery, Nottingham in 2005. For this exhibition the vinyl text asked
‘citizens’ what they did the previous week. The badges had the
following texts on:

•I
spoke
up

•I
helped
someone

•I
got
by

•I
made
a
stand

•I
did
nothing

At TEDGlobal 2011 in
Edinburgh, participants to the conference were asked to make public
what they had done at TED or what was on their mind, using these badges: